She saw it before me, an old green pick-up truck parked on the side of the road. It sagged under the heavy weight of equally green watermelons rising in a heap in the truck bed. The truck’s driver posted a sign that read Watermelons $5.00 or 2 fer ate. He sat next to it in an old aluminum lawn chair, weeds creeping up his ankles and the cicadas buzzing about the noonday heat.

As we pause to celebrate the anniversary of our nation’s independence, it seems appropriate to consider the vital role played by the U.S. military in the creation of our nation and its transformation of our world.

We are not a militaristic nation, but we are a nation that is proud of its military. We are not a perfect. We have made mistakes. We have not always lived up to our noble ideals. It is important to remember what happened at Wounded Knee, My Lai, and Abu Ghraib. But it is also important to remember the amazing things that the military has done.

As Republicans and Democrats prepare for their national nominating conventions next month, it’s clear that this has become one of the strangest – and most entertaining – presidential campaigns since at least 1912.

That was the year Theodore Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate and survived an assassination attempt to push the incumbent president, Republican William Howard Taft, into third place. Democrat Woodrow Wilson ended up as the winner.